Advice for weak underweight 5 y/o chicken possibly with worms

[springbok7]

I think it's safe to say that the egg was a hit. chopped up one of the boiled eggs in the fridge with a bit of water and made sure it was a little warm and she nailed it all. Do you think that all this really might be just that the other hens were bullying her away from the food? That gives me hope, but I'm still very worried about her...

 

[casportpony]

It could be something as simple as that. Another thing she might really like is a pellet mash. Try soaking some pellets in warm water, but don't leave them out all day 'cause they'll go rancid fairly quickly.

-Kathy

 

[springbok7]

Ok, I'll put a little dish of pellet mash near her as well, probably 1T of pellets at a time and discard each time. It's 85F outside right now so I'm sure it will go off quickly.

So at the moment, I have the options of: 1) kaytee tube fed, 2) mashed boiled egg, 3) pellet mash, and 4) plain pellets. But I don't know how often to do which etc. I'm guessing that some kind of alternating schedule would be good? What kind of rotation? And as I said I'm checking her every half hour and that includes checking her crop to see how much room she has in there for more food. At the moment it looks like she can fit an entire (chopped of course) egg in there, and when we did the kaytee she took 30cc. However, I may need to do 20cc at shorter intervals on the kaytee as one of the (brand new!!!) 60cc syringes the tip snapped right off while we were getting ready to feed her first thing this morning. Made me so mad. Must have been cracked from the start, sigh.

 

[casportpony]

Any idea on her weight? Wild guess?

-Kathy

 

[springbok7]

I weighed her yesterday, 1.914kg/4lbs3ozs.

 

[casportpony]

I weighed her yesterday, 1.914kg/4lbs3ozs.

How many times a day can you tube her?

 

[springbok7]

I just weighed her 10 minutes ago and she weighed 2.055kg (4lb 8.5ozs), and just polished off a second egg.

Today I gave her: 30cc 1:3 kaytee:water about 8am, 30cc sugar-water about 10am, 1/4c pellets about noon, a chopped egg about 3pm, 1/4c pellet mash about 4pm, and another egg at 5pm. Her crop is nice and full now.

I've dusted the crate and put new newspaper and put her in there with the water and the egg (which was gone in no time). The room has a light, should I continue to feed like this and/or do another 20cc of kaytee in an hour or two? Hub thinks that she won't digest much more cause it's heading to night but since got the light, I don't know.

As far as tube feeding, just tell me how often I should aim for. I've been trying to give her food whenever my half-hourly checks show her crop down to half full, which seemed like every couple hours this morning. But seemed more frequently in the afternoon.

 

[casportpony]

I just weighed her 10 minutes ago and she weighed 2.055kg (4lb 8.5ozs), and just polished off a second egg.

Today I gave her: 30cc 1:3 kaytee:water about 8am, 30cc sugar-water about 10am, 1/4c pellets about noon, a chopped egg about 3pm, 1/4c pellet mash about 4pm, and another egg at 5pm. Her crop is nice and full now.

I've dusted the crate and put new newspaper and put her in there with the water and the egg (which was gone in no time). The room has a light, should I continue to feed like this and/or do another 20cc of kaytee in an hour or two? Hub thinks that she won't digest much more cause it's heading to night but since got the light, I don't know.

As far as tube feeding, just tell me how often I should aim for. I've been trying to give her food whenever my half-hourly checks show her crop down to half full, which seemed like every couple hours this morning. But seemed more frequently in the afternoon.

If she's eating some on her own you could try tubing twice a day about 30-40ml twice a day and see if she continues to gain weight.

-Kathy

 

[springbok7]

Ok we'll see how it goes tomorrow. She's chowing down on another 1/4c of pellet mash at the moment. How early should I start tomorrow morning? 6AM? 7AM? Daylight?

 

[casportpony]

Ok we'll see how it goes tomorrow. She's chowing down on another 1/4c of pellet mash at the moment. How early should I start tomorrow morning? 6AM? 7AM? Daylight?

Whatever works for you! It's really good news that she's eating again!

-Kathy